


Further Experimentation Required

by vilia



Series: Plot Tropes in Merthurland [2]
Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Friends to Lovers, Gay For You, Getting Together, Jealous Arthur, M/M, Merthur endgame, Modern AU, Test Kiss, Unless you count Merlin's ability to attract otherwise straight Arthur, flatmates, no magic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-10
Updated: 2019-03-10
Packaged: 2019-11-15 00:58:15
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,416
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18063518
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vilia/pseuds/vilia
Summary: After Arthur accidentally overhears his best friend and flatmate, Merlin, having sex, he starts fantasizing about being with him—even though he’s only ever been interested in women before.





	Further Experimentation Required

Arthur didn’t like Merlin’s latest boyfriend. Gwaine wasn’t a bad person necessarily, he was just… Too easygoing about serious matters. He always seemed to be running late—couldn’t even bother to show up on time when he and Merlin had a date planned. Not to mention the small fact that he insisted on calling Arthur ridiculous nicknames every time he came by the flat.

Oh, and he drank too much. Merlin had never managed to build up much tolerance for alcohol. He didn’t need a boyfriend that, however indirectly, encouraged him to drink past his limits.

With all this, it was no surprise that when Arthur came home from work late one night and found Merlin and Gwaine snogging on the couch, he didn’t really approve. He went straight back to his room and slammed his door with maybe a little too much force.

The closed door didn’t help much. Their walls were paper thin, and Arthur could still hear their conversation.

“Your flatmate really doesn’t like me, does he?”

“Ignore him. He’s just moody sometimes.”

“You sure he’s really okay with us?”

“Yeah, Arthur’s cool. He’s not… prejudice or anything. I mean, lots of people wouldn’t like walking in on their flatmate snogging someone. Doesn’t matter whether they’re gay or not. I’ll apologize tomorrow. It’ll be fine.”

Arthur threw himself onto his bed and covered his head with his pillow. It wasn’t fine, as Merlin had contended, but over breakfast the next day, Arthur had to accept Merlin’s apology and say, “Of course. Just felt awkward walking in on you like that is all. I’d expected that you would still be out on your date.”

Merlin had been content with that explanation, as if he’d expected nothing else, and life continued on much as it had been for a time.

-x-x-

Arthur never managed to get a straight answer from Merlin about why he broke things off with Gwaine, but eventually he did, and for several months, Arthur’s home life was near perfect. He lived with the one person in the world whose company he could tolerate better than anyone else’s and didn’t have any annoying suitors invading his space. Then came Percival.

He was a tall man, with more muscle than Arthur considered strictly necessary, but little else to find fault in when looking at the issue on a purely objective level. He was the very model of courtesy, and treated Merlin well, seemed to make him happy. Arthur tried to be glad for his friend’s good luck, but found that somehow, he didn’t like Percival either, and try though he did, he couldn’t hide it entirely.

“Okay,” Merlin said late one night after returning home from a date. “I get why you didn’t like Gwaine. Calling you Princess to your face the first time you met wasn’t really a good foundation for your relationship, but what could you possibly have against Percy?”

“I don’t know, Merlin.” And he really didn’t. He’d known that Merlin was gay forever, seeing as Arthur first met him because he’d been dating Gwen’s brother when Arthur had been dating Gwen. Merlin’s boyfriends had never bothered him before. “I guess I just don’t think anyone can be good enough for my best mate.”

Merlin gave him a sad little smile. Arthur wasn’t sure why he would be sad of all things, but then, he was well aware that his emotional IQ was somewhat lower than average. Nearly all of his ex-girlfriends had commented on that fact at one point or another.

“Don’t let me stop you from doing whatever you want. If you really like him, go for it.” Arthur cringed inside. This wasn’t what he wanted to say at all. He wanted to demand that Merlin dump Percy immediately. The desire was accompanied with such a strong, unpleasant sensation in his stomach that he began to fear there was something seriously wrong with him.

Merlin had never complained about any of Arthur’s girlfriends. Well, he’d complained about Sophia, but only because she was an unrepentant drug addict, a little fact that Arthur hadn’t been aware of until a suggestion from Merlin led to Arthur catching her in the act of stealing leftover painkillers from when he’d had his wisdom teeth extracted. And okay, he’d complained about Vivian, too, but she was rude to everyone, so Arthur couldn’t fault him for that either. Perhaps it was better to say that Merlin never complained about anyone without adequate reason, and if that was limited to Gwen, well, that was more Arthur’s fault for his questionable taste in women.

“I was thinking of asking him to spend the night. Is that okay with you?”

“You don’t need my permission, Merlin.”

“I know, but…”

Arthur put a hand on Merlin’s shoulder. “I really do want you to be happy.” That much at least was true.

-x-x-

Arthur managed to be conveniently away on a business trip the first time that Percy stayed overnight. And the second time as well. He suspected that Merlin was scheduling it like that on purpose for his benefit and began to worry that Merlin thought Arthur really wasn’t okay with his sexual preferences. That wouldn’t do. He had to prove nothing was wrong, so when Percy broke his hand while heroically rescuing a little girl from a collapsing building (because of course a man like that had to be a firefighter), Arthur suggested that he stay with them so Merlin could help him in his convalescence. Merlin smiled at him so brightly, it was almost worth it.

The moment Percival set foot in the flat, Arthur began a campaign of willful self-delusion with the intent of convincing himself that the situation wasn’t so bad. It wouldn’t last forever, he told himself—though what if Merlin decided he liked the arrangement and asked if Percy could move in permanently. Or worse, Merlin could decide to move out and leave Arthur entirely on his own.  

Arthur found he would have rather noticed some blatantly undesirable trait that could have turned Merlin’s opinion, but he had little opportunity. Percival was deeply respectful of Arthur’s space, keeping his things only in Merlin’s room and cleaned up after himself in all the common areas despite his inability to use his dominant hand for anything useful. He was unfailingly polite and generally good-natured. None of this stopped Arthur’s dislike of him from growing.

Several days into Percy’s planned two week stay, Arthur woke in the middle of the night to the sounds of sex from Merlin’s room. Arthur usually slept through the night, and it wasn’t that they were being particularly loud, but Arthur had downed a tall glass of water before bed and needed to piss.

He kept the lights off, sneaked down to the toilet, and did his business as quietly as he could. The flush of the toilet and the running faucet as he washed his hands couldn’t be helped, but apparently Merlin and Percy were too involved to notice.

Arthur crept back to bed, closed his eyes, and tried to ignore the soft little moans coming from down the hall.

“Ahh.” That was Merlin.

“God, Merlin. You feel amazing. You’re so good to me.”

Merlin laughed softly. “Well it’s not as if I’m not getting anything out of this.” A pause. “ _Fuck_.”

The springs in the mattress began to squeak.

“Wish I had the use of both hands. Love touching you.”

Arthur had shared a flat with half a dozen guys over the course of his academic career. This was hardly the first time he’d been forced to endure overhearing a flatmate having sex. Usually, he’d just put in his earbuds and go to sleep, congratulate his friend in the morning.

Arthur didn’t reach for his earbuds. Didn’t even think about it. His mind was forcing himself to imagine what sort of position they were in. He had the sudden image of Merlin sitting on Percy’s cock while Percy laid back and worked his hand over Merlin’s.

He’d never thought about gay sex in such detail before, but he was surprised by the number of positions he could think of. Blow jobs and hand jobs and fucking from behind, fucking on their sides, fucking face to face. Percy’s cock rutting between Merlin’s cheeks. Face to face and rubbing their cocks together. The possibilities seemed endless.

It was a strange experience, and it had never happened before, but as Arthur began to wonder what it would feel like, his cock gave a little twitch.

“Ah! Percy, I’m so close.”

“Yeah?”

“Mmm.”

“Wanna see you come.”

Suddenly, Arthur wanted to see too. Wanted to see what Merlin looked like when he had an orgasm. He reached down the front of his pants and stroked himself roughly. It was ridiculous, how quickly he came.

The next morning, Arthur woke and laid in bed contemplating the night's developments. He’d never had a gay fantasy before, let alone one featuring his best friend. He tried to be rational about this. One little fantasy didn’t mean anything. This didn’t mean he wasn’t straight anymore.

The clink of dishes let him know that Merlin and Percy were preparing breakfast. He should go out there, prove to himself that this whole thing was just some weird, one-time quirk. He rolled out of bed, found himself hiding out in the bathroom under the pretense of taking a shower. It wasn’t that he didn’t need a shower, but he was usually in and out in 5 minutes. Today, he stretched it to 15.

He shouldn’t have done that. By the time he was dressed, Merlin had already left for work. Percy sat alone in the kitchen, drinking a cup of coffee. Arthur tried to hide his distaste for the man, but after last night, he found it even more difficult to do.

“I thought you were going back to work today,” Arthur said as he made himself some toast. “Merlin mentioned something about light office work.”

“That’s right,” Percival said with no indication in his tone that he was picking up on Arthur’s hostility. “I don’t need to go in until noon though.”

“Ah.”

Arthur sat down across from Percy and began wracking his brain for a safe topic of conversation. He kind of wanted to ask him what sex with a man felt like. What sex with _Merlin_ felt like. That wasn’t something he would ever ask of course, but it didn’t stop him from wanting to know. And that wasn’t boding well for his one-time anomaly theory.

When Arthur went out for lunch after a morning of meetings and reports, he purposely chose a restaurant where he could people-watch. Specifically, he wanted to test himself. He looked at women, noticed a few who were quite attractive. He could see himself kissing or fucking several. Then he looked at the men. There was one who Arthur was sure most people who were into men would find attractive. Arthur had no interest.

He needed to forget about this whole business. He was 24. If he were bisexual, he would know by now.

Merlin and Percy were out when Arthur got home in the evening, and Arthur tried to be okay with that. He had no cause to be… jealous. If that’s what had been going on.

Thing was, after that, Arthur couldn’t stop thinking about it. Weeks passed, and he still found himself imagining what it would feel like to have Merlin’s lips on his cock and how Merlin would look riding him and what sounds would fall from his lips if Arthur had the opportunity to make him come apart with his fingers inside Merlin’s body. There still wasn’t a single other man he found himself drawn to like that, and he did try. He even considered going to a gay club for a random hookup or at least a snog to test it out. He just couldn’t work up the required enthusiasm for it.

He had to do something though, because this whole business was getting out of hand. He forced himself to spend less time with Merlin so that he wouldn't figure out what was going on. He was already beginning to notice that something was different.

“Seriously, Arthur. What is with you these days?” Merlin said one night after a playful argument over what to watch on television turned into a wresting match over the remote. Arthur’d thought he could handle it, but that was when only their hands were involved in the scuffle. Once Merlin tackled him down to the floor, all Arthur could think about was flipping them over and snogging Merlin senseless. He’d given up suddenly, allowing Merlin an easy victory, and gone quiet.

“Nothing. I don’t know what you mean.”

Merlin wasn’t buying it. “Did I do something wrong? You can tell me if I did.”

“No, Merlin.” He took a deep breath.

“If this is still about Percy staying here, remember that was your own idea to begin with.”

“That’s not it.” Which wasn’t a lie, even if it had been the catalyst.

“And he’s been back at his own place for a week now so—”

“Merlin! I keep telling you—”

“Well, I keep not believing you!”

Arthur stormed off to his room and sulked, but his irritation did nothing to stop his new fantasies. He’d taken to masturbating every night and then again in the shower every morning. It was ridiculous. He hadn’t been this sexually frustrated since… well, possibly forever.

More than a month later, the tension still hadn’t abated. And for some reason, Merlin started spending a lot more time at home than he had been recently. In some ways, Arthur liked that. It meant he wasn’t over at Percy’s having sex. In other ways, it was worse.

On a Saturday afternoon, Arthur walked into the kitchen to find Merlin taking laundry out of the machine. He was bent over, his arse high in the air, facing Arthur. It only took a tiny glance to have Arthur’s cock stiffening. Merlin hadn’t realized he was there, so Arthur paused a moment to watch. If it hadn’t been for the risk of discovery, he probably would have stayed longer, regardless of how inappropriate it was to ogle his friend in such a manner.

He slunk back to his room, closed the door as quietly as he could and pulled down his jeans and pants enough to pull his cock out. He leaned back on the door, gave himself a few rough tugs. He balled up his free hand and held it tight against his lips to stifle any moans, then changed his mind a bit. He laid his fingers out flat, rolled them into a rough cylindrical shape, and stuffed them into his mouth, pretending it was Merlin’s hard cock. He dropped to his knees, tried sucking and swallowing. It wasn’t particularly coordinated or skillful, but the work of his other hand proved to be too distracting for anything else. He came as quietly as he could, tears prickling at the corners of his eyes from nearly choking himself with his fingers and slumped down to sit on the floor. He was pathetic.

These feelings weren’t going away any time soon. What if they never did? Fuck. What if this destroyed his friendship with Merlin completely? He couldn’t bear that.

He needed to get laid, badly. After he cleaned himself up a bit, he scrolled through the contacts on his phone looking for any woman that might be interested in some casual, no-strings-attached sex, but the thought of Mithian’s great legs or Elena’s gorgeous tits wasn’t enough to compel him to make a single call.

That night, as they were about to sit down together to eat supper, Arthur took one look at Merlin, who was trying to goad him into smiling and decided it would be best if they spent as little time together as possible until he had himself sorted out. He grabbed his plate.

“I’ve got some work to do. I’ll just eat in my room so you don’t have to be bothered by the clattering of my keyboard.”

“ _Arthur!_ ” Merlin said, anguished.

Arthur paused.

“Please tell me what’s wrong. I thought we were friends.”

Arthur’s shoulders sagged.

“It’s—”

“Don’t tell me it’s nothing. I know you better than that.”

He turned back around. He had to give Merlin something. “Its…” The words lodged in his throat. What if Merlin rejected him? What if he didn’t and the instant they took a step down the romantic path together, Arthur realized that all those fantasies he’d been having really were nothing after all? He couldn’t do that to Merlin. But maybe… he didn’t have to tell Merlin everything. Just enough to get him to understand that he hadn’t done anything wrong, that Arthur wasn’t mad at him.

He set his plate back on the table.

“I…”

“Come on.” Merlin tilted his head toward the lounge. “Food will wait. Let’s sit down.”

Arthur nodded glumly, felt like a man being led toward his doom.

They sat close on the couch, turned in to face each other.

“Now,” Merlin said. “You’re going to tell me what’s been troubling you, and I’m going to help you fix it. All right?”

“It’s no big deal. I’ve just been… having a little internal crisis. That’s all.”

“Oh, that’s all? A ‘crisis.’ That sounds like everything’s just fine to me.” Merlin rolled his eyes. “Tell me more.”

“It’s about myself. What I want in life.”

“What, like a quarter life crisis?” Merlin sounded dubious.

“No, I uh…” Maybe he could just start with what brought this on in the first place. “I had this… dream.” His wording might be a little misleading, but it was easier to admit this way, and it wasn’t an outright lie because a daydream did count as a type of dream. He certainly didn’t want to make Merlin uncomfortable by admitting that he’d overheard his friend having sex.

“Okay.”

“In it, I was doing something I wouldn’t normally do.”

“Uh, huh. Keep going.”

“Something that runs counter to my whole identity to this point.”

Merlin waited patiently.

Arthur opened his mouth once. Closed it. Tried again. “I was with a man.”

Merlin clearly didn’t understand the significance of the statement. He tilted his head. “What were you doing?”

Of course. Arthur was so straight, even his best friend didn’t make the connection when he said it out loud.

“I was _with_ him.”

Merlin’s eyes went a bit wide, comprehension sinking in.

“As in, having sex.”

There were a few moments of utter silence, then Merlin burst out into laughter. It took a whole minute for him to calm himself. When he did, he had to wipe tears from the corners of his eyes.

Arthur scowled. There was nothing funny about this.

“And you’re worried about your sexuality? Arthur,” he shook his head. “One little fantasy doesn’t make you gay.”

“I’m _not_ worried about being gay. It’s not as if I’m… I’m not homophobic.”

“Aren’t you? Just a little? I mean. It’s okay if you are. I know you don’t want to be, but you can’t help how you feel. It’s how you act that’s more important, and I know you try to get it right, even if it is hard for you. Isn’t that why you hated Percy?”

Arthur scrubbed at his eyes. “I don’t hate him.”

“Sure. That’s why you’ve been so relieved that he’s not around anymore. Does it really make you that uncomfortable to have to see us together in a domestic setting? You never seemed to be troubled by my boyfriends before we started sharing this flat.” Merlin paused, then said, “Are you automatically going to hate my next boyfriend, too?”

“What do you mean, ‘next boyfriend?’”

“Percy and I broke up.”

“What, really?” Arthur tried to keep the relief from his voice. Judging by Merlin’s expression, he didn’t quite manage. “But you were so happy with him! And I thought he really liked you. Did he dump you or was it the other way around?”

“I broke up with him. I just… I didn’t see it going anywhere.”

“But—”

“See this is what I mean. You clearly never liked him, but you’re still troubled on my behalf. So even if you have a few hang-ups about me being gay, you’re trying to do better. You’re a good person.”

Arthur shook his head. “No, Merlin, I really mean it. I have no problem with you liking men.” Arthur was glad that Merlin liked men. He wanted Merlin to like _him_. It seemed plain as day now. He really had been jealous of Merlin’s past boyfriends. Jealous of any future ones too.

“All right, Arthur.” He sounded as if he didn’t believe it, but was agreeing just for Arthur’s sake. “But we’re not sitting here to talk about my love life.”

“No,” Arthur shook his head. He wouldn’t be so easily distracted. “Before we get back to my problem, you have to tell me why you broke up with someone you liked so much. Gwaine too for that matter, and Lance before him.”

“If I tell you that, you promise you’re really going to tell me what your little identity crisis is about?”

“Yes.” Sort of.

“I just… I have this idea in my head. Of what it’s supposed to feel like when you’ve met the right person. And I know I’m never going to have that with any of my exes. I liked all of them, sure. But I was never going to fall for any of them. I…” He paused, looked down at his hands. “I know what that feels like.”

“To fall in love?”

Merlin looked back up. “Yeah.”

Arthur tried to remember all of Merlin’s exes. Which one had he been in love with? And why hadn’t he ever told Arthur about it? They were supposed to be best friends!

“Why did you never—”

“But that’s enough about me.”

“ _Merlin_ … You can’t just tell me that you’ve—”

“Back to you.”

“—been in love and not elaborate.”

“You really don’t have to trouble yourself about this fantasy of yours, Arthur.”

Arthur glared at him, but Merlin continued on undaunted.

“Lots of people have a little fantasy every once in a while that runs counter to their usual preferences. It doesn’t mean they want it in real life. You don’t have to radically redefine your whole identity because of it.”

Arthur sighed, recognizing that he’d lost this round. He wasn’t giving up on the topic of Merlin in love. He’d just have to pester him about it later.

“But that’s just it. _I know that_. And I still…” He swallowed down the nervous lump in his throat. “I honestly think it’s something I want to explore in real life. I think about it all the time now. Lots of different fantasies.”

“Okay. So what’s the problem exactly? If it’s not some sort of internalized homophobia.”

“It’s… there’s just this one person. Just one man, that I find myself attracted to. I’m 24 years old and have only ever been attracted to one man? That’s weird isn’t it? I’ve tried looking at other men. Just, you know, random blokes on the street. Or men at work. Friends. Whoever. It’s still just that one person.”

“Okay, I admit, that is a somewhat uncommon experience. That doesn’t make your feelings invalid. Why don’t you just ask him out? Is he straight?” Merlin shifted a fraction closer, his eyes filled with a deep kind of sympathy for Arthur’s situation.

“No.”

“Well then…”

“But what if it really is nothing? I want to try, but… It seems cruel to experiment on someone I care about so much just to figure out if maybe I’m a tiny bit bisexual. Or, I don’t know, some sort of… demisexual when it comes to blokes.”

“So it’s a friend then?”

Arthur’s palms broke out into a clammy mess. He nodded.

“Is it Leon?”

Arthur laughed. “No. It’s not Leon. He’s not even gay.”

“Is it one of my exes? Is it Elyan?”

Arthur shook his head. “Stop trying to guess who it is. I don’t want to experiment on him to figure out if my feelings are real anyway.”

“What if…” Merlin licked his lips, suddenly nervous. “What if you experiment on me instead?”

“What?”

“I know you only like this one guy, but maybe it’s just nerves, and maybe when you experience what it’s like with a bloke you’ll be able to figure out— I don’t know. This is probably a stupid idea. But if you think it might help…”

Arthur couldn’t believe it. Merlin was unwitting offering himself up for the perfect opportunity. The problem of course what that he wasn’t considering himself as a potential partner for Arthur. Probably because he had zero interest.

“It might,” Arthur said cautiously.

“All right. Want to try now?”

Arthur nodded.

“We’ll start really small, okay?”

“Okay.”

Merlin turned his palm up and rested it on Arthur’s knee. With utter sincerity, he said, “Hold my hand?”

Arthur’s heart thundered in his chest as he reached forward to slip his hand into Merlin’s. The skin on his palm felt slightly rough against Arthur’s fingertips. His brain zeroed in on this small point of contact. It became his whole world. He stared at their hands, mesmerized.

Merlin swept his thumb across the back of Arthur’s knuckles. It felt so wonderful, a delighted little laugh burst out of his mouth before he could reign it in.

“What?” Merlin said. “Realizing this is a fool’s errand already?”

Arthur shook his head. “No, it’s just… You’re—" He nodded at their hands. “I’m always doing that with my girlfriends when I hold their hands, but I don’t think anyone’s ever done it to me before.”

“What?” Merlin laughed.

“Yeah, I… It feels good though. I think I like it.”

“All right.” Merlin nodded once. “So you’re okay with holding a bloke’s hand. What if I touched your arm?”

Arthur rolled his eyes. “I know you said we’d start slow, but really, this is—” Arthur wanted to say that a simple touch on the arm didn’t count as anything even remotely sexual, but then Merlin’s free hand was on Arthur’s wrist and he glided his palm gently across the muscles of Arthur’s forearm, maneuvered his hand so that only the pad of his thumb traced it’s way over the soft inner bend of his elbow. He continued up over Arthur’s bicep to grab hold of his upper arm.

Arthur attempted to swallow, but found his mouth had gone dry.

“Like this?” Merlin said.

“That’s… That’s okay too,” he said, sounding a little breathless even to his own ears.

“What about your leg?”

“Better try,” Arthur said, his voice going low and rough.

Merlin nodded, took his hand from Arthur’s arm and placed it firmly on his thigh midway between his knee and groin. He squeezed gently, then inched his way up a little higher.

It wasn’t nearly enough for Arthur. 

“Merlin…”

“This is okay, too?”

“Yes. This is…” God, this was agonizing, and they still hadn’t even kissed yet. He wanted to ask Merlin to move his hand up even further, to give attention to his rapidly developing erection.

“Well,” Merlin said, studying Arthur’s expression. “I think maybe this is helping you clarify a few things?”

Arthur nodded.

“Then do you think this is far enough?”

“No,” Arthur was quick to say. “I mean, if it’s all right with you… I think I need to at least kiss a bloke to be sure.”

“All right.” Merlin leaned in slowly and Arthur did as well, trying not to be too eager.

Before their lips touched, Merlin tilted his head a bit to the side. “Sure you want to do this?”

Merlin’s hot breath ghosted across Arthur’s lips. He whispered, “Please.”

Merlin slotted their lips together, and Arthur closed his eyes, reveling in the contact, not just of Merlin’s lips on his, but of their hands still held together, and Merlin’s other hand squeezing again at his thigh. He let out a deep moan and pressed his tongue forward to slide between Merlin’s lips. Merlin allowed it, pressed in closer.

Merlin tasted faintly of the little fruit flavoured sweets that he liked to keep in a dish on the kitchen worktop. Arthur pulled Merlin closer and when the kiss turned heated, something snapped in his resolve. He grabbed Merlin’s hand from his thigh and pressed it instead against his hard cock. Merlin was just as caught up as Arthur and palmed him briefly through his trousers before moving his hand up to release the button at the waistband.

“Yes,” Arthur panted, out of his mind with arousal, ready to fuck or even be fucked if it felt half so nice as the other little things Merlin had done to him so far.

Merlin pulled back then, breaking all contact. His hair stood in disarray. His lips were red and shiny with spit. Arthur glance down and felt a little chuffed to see that Merlin had been as excited by their little experiment as he was.

“Well…” Merlin said, straightening his hair and shirt. “We, uhh, should probably stop here then. I think you’re safe to ask this new crush of yours out on a date. No need to worry that the moment he touches you that you’re going to regret everything.”

“Yeah.”

This did nothing to explain why Merlin was the only man he’d ever wanted, but there certainly was no doubt left that he did want him, not just some fantasy of him.

Before the excitement of the moment faded too much and the blood circulation was fully restored to his brain, Arthur said, “Let me take you out Merlin.”

“What?” He looked confused.

“On a date I mean.”

Merlin smiled a moment, then gave Arthur that sad look that he was growing all too familiar with.

“I know we go out all the time anyway as friends, but this would be different.”

“You’re supposed to be asking your crush, Arthur, not me. Just because we—”

“You _are_ my crush, Merlin.”

Merlin still looked confused, and Arthur had to fight off the urge to cringe. This was going to end so badly. Merlin might have liked getting off with him, but that didn’t mean he had romantic feeling for him.

“It’s been you all along. That’s why I was so worried about this. I… couldn’t bear to hurt you.”

“Really?”

Arthur nodded, hoping that the optimism that he heard in Merlin’s tone wasn’t his imagination.

“Fuck, Merlin. I don’t just want to be your flatmate and best friend. I want to be your boyfriend, too.”

Merlin nodded, surged forward to kiss him again, and Arthur realized he’d been restraining himself before. Being kissed by Merlin was like being overtaken by a force of nature, and Arthur loved it.  

“I can’t believe this,” Merlin said when he pulled back for breath. “You… All this time I’ve spent hopelessly pining...” He fell back against the couch as if utterly exhausted.

“What are you talking about?”

Merlin sat up again. “You wanted to know why I keep breaking up with great guys. It’s because of you.”

“Me? I thought you said it was because you’d been in love.”

“I…” Merlin nodded. “I was. I mean, yes. I still am. With you. I thought it was hopeless. You were straight.”

Arthur smiled as his mind suddenly flooded him with a vision of what his future held. In that moment he knew with the certainty of some ancient soothsayer that Merlin was it for him.

“You’re in love with me?”

Merlin nodded. “I am.”

“I think… I think I might be in love with you too.”

Merlin put his hand to Arthur’s cheek, ran his thumb over his lips. He looked so happy; Arthur couldn’t remember the last time he looked so happy.

“So this date you’re proposing,” Merlin said. “Where do you want to go?”

“Well, I’m sure we can find some interesting things to do around town later, but right now, we have dinner waiting for us in the kitchen. How would you feel if we just stayed in tonight? We can eat, maybe watch a film, then… if you want, you could take me to bed.”

Merlin grinned, leaned forward to rest his forehead against Arthur’s. “A little unconventional for a first date, but all things considered, there’s nothing I would rather do.”

**Author's Note:**

> If you notice several common elements with Part 1 of the series, that's because Sisterly Advice was written as a variation of this and another story I'm working on (one where otherwise straight Merlin learns that he's in love with Arthur) which will likely be next in this series. All three stories feature the gay for you trope, and the best friends/roommates dynamic, but have completely separate plots. 
> 
> I should also note that this story pulls some inspiration from that Reddit thread. You know [the one](https://www.gaystarnews.com/article/straight-guy-worries-hes-homophobic-gay-roommate-ends-falling-love/), right? I actually tried to steer away from this plot line (because I know others have done it before) and focus more on the, "I witnessed this thing and now it's changing my whole worldview" aspect of the story, but I wasn't really as successful with that as I wanted to be.


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